I'm looking for recommendations on fantasy novels with strong female leads and minimal to no romance, hetero or sapphic. Scholomance is about as much of a focus as I can take.
The Library of the Unwritten started out very strong but, for me, quickly went pretty sideways. I was disappointed that the author chose to focus so heavily on the relationships at the expense of an exploration of the underlying premise – that there is an afterlife (ish?) – for human works as well as the people themselves. Never saw any visual or woven art, for example, they were hinted at in the first novel but that "thread" was dropped
by TerminusMD
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How strong is your stomach, and do you like Urban Fantasy?
I’m currently on an Elizabeth Moon kick.
This one is more sci fi but check out “Remnant Population” – our protagonist is a grandmother on a colonized planet who decides to stay behind when the colony gets evacuated.
Otherwise – the Deed of Paksennarrion is a classic epic fantasy where the protagonist leaves the home farm to become a mercenary and then , well, lots more, but who is essentially asexual and has lots of very close friendships but minimal romance.
The Fifth Season, but it’s not for everyone.
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews
Tanya Huff’s *Into the Broken Lands* is about an expedition into a magical waste, no romance
Elizabeth Moon’s *Deed of Paksennerion* is about a farmgirl becoming a Paladin. She’s aroace.
Max Gladstone’s *Three Parts Dead* features a lawyer-necromancer who’s offered a job in a good firm if she helps resurrect a dead god via mystic debt consolidation. No romance.
*A Dead Djinn in Cairo/A Master of Djinn* by P Djeli Clark is about a dapper lesbian investigating magic crimes in an alternate early-20th Century Cairo. Scholomance-level romance.
*The Black God’s Drums* ibid, in a magical New Orleans in the 19th century. No romance
*Certain Dark Things* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Young woman encounters ancient god, that’s never good news. No romance I recall.
*Legendborn* series by Tracy Deonn
Young Black woman discovers she’s an heir to the power of the Round Table. The white people who thought they ran the show aren’t happy. No romance I recall, but I haven’t finished the series yet.